Media content providers (e.g., cable television providers, satellite television and/or radio providers, Internet service providers, etc.) provide media content programs including video, audio, and/or other media content to users such as subscribers of the media content providers' services. Commonly, a user accessing a particular media content program can use equipment located at the user's premises (e.g., a local media content server such as a digital video recorder or other set-top device) to record the media content program for later viewing. In some examples, the user may wish to view or listen to the recorded media content program using a playback device independent from the equipment used to record the media content program, or to do so in a different location from the user's premises where the recording of the media content program is stored. Accordingly, the media content provider may provide an option for the user to transfer the media content program from the equipment that recorded the media content program (e.g., the local media content server) to a separate playback device (e.g., a portable device such as a mobile phone, tablet device, laptop computer, etc.).
Before the media content program is downloaded and played back by the playback device, it may be desirable for data comprising the media content program to be transcoded and/or otherwise prepared for use on the playback device. For example, if the playback device is a portable device, the playback device may have reduced playback capabilities compared to the original device for which the media content program was recorded (e.g., a smaller screen, fewer audio speakers, etc.). As such, it may be desirable to convert the data comprising the media content program from a relatively high bit rate at which the media content program was recorded (e.g., 20 Megabits per second (“Mbps”)) to a lower bit rate more suitable for playback on the portable device (e.g., 3 Mbps). Similarly, it may be desirable for the data to be reformatted for playback on the portable device (e.g. from a MPEG-2 transport stream (“MPEG-TS”) format to an MPEG-4 Part 14 (“MP4”) format).
However, waiting for the media content program to be transcoded and otherwise prepared for use on the playback device may create a significant inconvenience for the user. For example, high-quality data transcoding may be performed at just 1× playback speed, meaning that, if the media content program is one hour in length, the user may need to wait at least one hour from requesting to download the media content program to the playback device until the media content program is downloaded and ready for playback on the playback device.